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“BICAS is a cooperatively-run non-profit Community Center that, through bicycle advocacy and recycling of the bicycle, promotes education, art and a healthy environment while providing services and opportunity for those in need”
BICAS is an education center, not a traditional bike shop.
The BICAS goal is to help the surrounding neighborhoods become cleaner, healthier, and safer by offering community members a safe, fun, interactive way of learning about bicycles. BICAS helps students understand that they are valued members of their communities in which they can take control of their own lives and environment through sustainable transportation and recycling.
BICAS's unique approach and innovative programmess, which solicit participation from the entire community, allow people to:-
Fix their bikes: “Give people fish; you have fed them for today. Teach people to fish; and you have fed them for a lifetime”
BICAS don't do your repairs, (a temporary solution), they help you fix your bike (an empowering opportunity). People can fix their bikes at BICAS under expert supervisory help by using the organisation's tools and choosing from the available selection of used parts. This has enabled BICAS to move away from being merely another bike shop, and allowed the organisation to remain true to its educational mission.
Community Tools
The community tools programme provides the perfect medium to educate the public on the maintenance and safe and proper use of their bicycles. BICAS supplies a fully equipped community tool shop for all bike maintenance needs. (Shop time costs $3 an hour, but never more than $10 a day). In the Community Tool area, you can put your bike up in a stand, use the community tools, and ask questions of BICAS staff and volunteers. BICAS staffs the CT area with “community mechanics” that devote their time to answering questions and providing assistance in the community tool space.
- Buy Used Parts Hundreds of brakes, handle bars, wheels, and other used bike parts are available at BICAS. Crates are full and tires cover a wall, so for next to nothing (most everything is a buck and usually nothing more than $5) you can get that special part that your bike desires. More expensive, fancier parts are available upon request and prices are based upon quality and condition of the part.
BICAS Classes
BICAS holds workshops to teach the community how to safely and effectively maintain, rebuild, and ride bicycles.
Scholarships
BICAS wants to ensure that every young person who wants to take our build-a-bike classes gets an opportunity to do so. Scholarships are actively solicited from individuals (primarily through the BICAS membership programme ) to sponsor youth who may not be able to afford the full $80 workshop fee. Partial scholarships are most common, and full scholarships can be made if needed.All requests to sponsor a scholarship are welcome (obviously!). We will gladly send you a thank you from the sponsored student and possibly a photo showing her/his earned and newly refurbished bicycle!
Get a Bicycle
There are many ways to get a bicycle at BICAS. Quality recycled bicycles are sold at BICAS . Almost all of these bikes receive complete overhauls (totally taken apart, cleaned, re-greased and put back together) for that new bike feel, at not new bike prices. Prices typically range between $70 and $200, but could be more, could be less. You can even rent a bike if you are just in town for a few days or need a loaner.
“The doorbell will be ringing unexpectedly in millions of homes from next year as an army of government-funded “travel advisers” tries to persuade people to switch from driving to walking, cycling and public transport”
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